WAM: Militants have been distributing food, medicine and shelter in quake-hit southwest Pakistan, finding their strong faith an advantage in this deeply conservative region.

Volunteers, including veterans of bitter conflicts in Afghanistan and Kashmir, were welcomed by villagers in remote areas of mountainous Balochistan, amid suspicion of “outside” agencies also working on the relief effort.

One of the groups, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, has been listed by the United States as a “terrorist organisation” because it is the political wing of the outlawed Kashmiri militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

But the group, which has been on the scene since the 6.4-magnitude quake struck on Wednesday, insist they are not playing politics at a time of dire need and vulnerability.

“We believe in serving people,” one Jamaat-ud-Dawa volunteer who gave his name as Abu Abdullah told AFP. “We are not doing any politics here and we are making every effort to provide relief to the survivors.”

Abdullah, 40, said he left his job as a teacher to fight in Afghanistan for the mujahideen against the Soviet army in the late 1980s and spent six months smuggling people across the Kashmir border between India and Pakistan in 1993.

He also volunteered in the relief operation after the devastating 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan which killed 74,000 people.

Jamaat-ud-Dawa has set up five camps of 50 tents in Wam, one of the villages worst affected by the quake. They immediately recruited 100 volunteers, including 30 doctors and paramedics, to help survivors, he said.

As in 2005, they have been working in remote areas that government agencies and non-governmental organisations had yet to reach, handing out blankets to stave off sub-zero temperatures, dried fruit, milk and tents.

“We are arranging food for 5,000 people three times a day,” he said, estimating that at least 25,000 people have been sleeping in the open air since their mud-brick, straw-roofed houses were flattened.

“People cooperate with us because we are religious people and they believe in our charity,” he added.

For the first day after the quake, groups like Jamaat-ud-Dawa filled a vacuum left by what residents said was the government's failure to provide immediate aid.

With Balochistan already a simmering cauldron of separatist tribal unrest and Taliban militant violence, local newspapers warned in editorials that further discontent with the authorities in Islamabad could be dangerous.

Non-militant linked hardline organisations are also handing out aid in the province, including leading religious party Jamaat-e-Islami.

Jamaat-e-Islami was formerly part of an alliance of Islamist parties, including some which openly supported the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and are harshly critical of Pakistan's ties with the United States.

One local volunteer, Mohammad Saleem, told AFP: “We have provided people with food, blankets and tents. The thing most people want is tents, which are scarce in the area.

“We are trying to get more and more tents. We have food, medicines and our own medical teams, which are organised by our subsidiary relief agency, Al-Khidmat,” he said.

“People are very distressed. The relief activities are very limited. This area is very cold, so despite the provision of food, children are falling ill and it will take a lot of time to reach these children.”

Labourer Nasrullah, 30, lives in a remote village near Wam. His six-year-old daughter, Aasia, was badly injured in the quake but was now receiving treatment by Jamaat-ud-Dawa medics -- after initially being cautious of their help.

“We were shy to expose our women to these people because there were no women doctors. But when they convinced us, we were inspired by their religious beliefs,” he said. “They said they were serving humanity.

“We are happy. At least someone approached us and treated our women and children.”

Another man, Mohammad Hussein, 54, added: “I don't see anyone else coming here to do politics. They have come here to help us and they are all our brothers.”